How Mindfulness Practice can Destroy Stress in Just 7 Days
One of the key benefits of mindfulness practice is that it significantly reduces our stress and anxiety levels over time. Here is how to destroy stress in just 7 Days with one simple mindfulness practice.
What is Stress?
First of all, what is stress? Stress is a physiological response the body experiences when it engages in a situation it deems threatening. It could be being chased by a lion, or protecting your child against an angry dog. When this happens, the body enters a fight or flight mode where the heart rate increases, the body warms up, and the sensitivity of our senses heightens. This is all to provide us with the greatest chance of survival.
Social Stress
However, in our present day, we don’t have life threatening situations like lions and tigers chasing us, but instead we have socially stressful situations like performing a speech or taking an exam. When this happens, the body reacts the same way and we enter fight or flight mode again, which is our natural stress response. The problem we now face as a society is that we don’t know how to turn this off and so we spend large periods of our days and weeks in this stressful state and it can really affect our physical and mental health.
Mindful Breathing
The most effective mindfulness practice for stress reduction is mindful breathing. We should aim to spread mindful breathing throughout the day, even if its just one or two deep breaths. Setting an hourly reminder helps and this serves to accomplish three main things. It gives us a moment away from our thoughts which sometimes seem never ending. Breathing also brings comfort to the body and relaxes the mind, so the more mindful breaths the better our overall well being. And finally deep breathing reminds our body there is no life threatening situation happening right now so we can relax and enjoy the moment.
Mindful breathing is the simplest yet most effective mindfulness practice that not only destroys stress, but also improves well being in every aspect of life. Incorporate it into your everyday activities and practice mindful breathing on walks, while watching television, or even when you're cooking, washing the dishes or brushing your teeth! Do it for seven days and see just how much it improves your stress!
Thanks for reading and as always, see you next time!
